When I launched TF2 last night, Steam decided to perform a forced verification of my local files.

"No problem", I thought, an update must have been issued while I was at work.

At 70%, the verification failed out claiming 'Steam Servers Are Too Busy To Perform This Action'... try again later.

Waited a bit and tried again. The verification started all over again, and died at the same point with the same error.

Same result 3 hours later, and again 8hrs after that.

Dug around on SPUF and based on other peoples experiences, deleted my local files and attempted to re-download.

The re-download failed almost immediately with the same 'Servers Busy' error.

More SPUF mining suggested changing my Location setting so it would force the download from a different server (presumably not busy).

Tried 6 different areas, including European servers, but all failed as 'Busy'

Last desperate digging on SPUF suggested denaming the ClientRegistry.blob and make Steam rebuild itself.Steam rebuilt itself with no trouble and found all of my installed games (minus the deleted TF2).See above for the results of trying to download it.....

All of my other Steam games run without trouble, even TF2Beta....

Thus far, only male-pattern-baldness has prevented my from pulling out more hair.